Washington, Mar 27: The United States has seen a record 18,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 345 deaths over the past 24 hours, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
There are now 97,028 declared virus cases in the country and there have been 1,475 deaths, Johns Hopkins said.
Washington, Jun 13: America's first-ever Hindu lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has said that in this chaotic time, one can find certainty, strength, and peace in Bhagavad Gita.
In her message during a virtual commencement address, the 39-year-old Congresswoman from Hawaii said that it is a chaotic time and no one can say with certainty what tomorrow looks like.
"... but we find certainty, strength, and peace in the practice of Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga taught to us by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita," Tulsi Gabbard told the 'Class of 2020 for Hindu students''.
Her address came amidst protests in the US against the killing of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The country has been swept by protests since George Floyd's custodial death on May 25 with thousands of people mounting pressure for changes to the law enforcement practices.
The first-ever virtual Hindu commencement was organised by the Hindu Students Council on June 7, which drew thousands of viewers on Facebook and YouTube Live, all coming together in solidarity during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the contagion has infected over 76,00,000 people and killed more than 4,25,000 across the world. The US is the worst affected country with over 2.04 million cases and more than 1,14,000 deaths.
The COVID-19, which originated in China''s Wuhan city in December last year, has also battered the world economy with the International Monetary Fund saying that the global economy is bound to suffer a "severe recession".
Scientists are racing against time to find a vaccine or medicine for its treatment.
Hundreds of graduates from the US, Canada, the UK, India and Australia attended to commemorate their graduation in a unique way - by celebrating their shared Hindu values.
Professor Subhash Kak served as the ceremony's Grand Marshall.
"As you think about this new chapter in your lives, ask yourself what is my purpose in life? It is a deep question that if you can recognise now that your purpose is to serve God and God''s children, practicing Karma Yoga, then you can lead a truly successful life," Tulsi Gabbard said.
"Success is not defined by temporary material things, trinkets, glittery objects or accomplishments - but a deeply successful and happy life centered around service," she added.
The Iraq war veteran ended her presidential campaign in March and offered her full support to former vice president Joe Biden, 77, who is all set to challenge Republican incumbent Donald Trump, 73, in November elections.
The commencement address focused heavily on themes from the Bhagavad Gita, a timeless historical text that many Hindus consider their moral framework.
Professor Kak, Regent Professor at Oklahoma State University and 2019 Padma Shri recipient, read out the names of the graduating students.
"I exhort you - the graduating students - to be the leaders of the new world where education is less of the mind of a vessel to be filled with information (usually forgotten after the semester is over), and more of a flame that is lit as envisioned by our Vedic sages," he said.
The student speakers were from many university campuses, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, and Stanford.
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The programme included offerings of Hindu prayers, recitation of a traditional graduation message from the Upanishads, and a symbolic conferral of degrees to high school and college graduate.
Founded in 1990, Hindu Students Council is North America''s largest pan-Hindu youth organisation.
Stockholm, Jun 15: Nuclear powers continue to modernise their arsenals, researchers said Monday, warning that tensions were rising and the outlook for arms control was "bleak".
"The loss of key channels of communication between Russia and the USA... could potentially lead to a new nuclear arms race," said Shannon Kile, director of the nuclear arms control programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and co-author of the report.
Russia and the US account for more than 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.
Kile was referring to the future of the New START treaty between the US and Russia, which is set to expire in February 2021.
It is the final nuclear deal still in force between the two superpowers, aimed at maintaining their nuclear arsenals below Cold War levels.
"Discussions to extend New START or to negotiate a new treaty made no progress in 2019," the SIPRI researchers noted.
At the same time, nuclear powers continue to modernise their weapons while China and India are increasing the size of their arsenals.
"China is in the middle of a significant modernisation of its nuclear arsenal. It is developing a so-called nuclear triad for the first time, made up of new land- and sea-based missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft," SIPRI said.
The country has repeatedly rejected Washington's insistence that it join any future nuclear arms reduction talks.
The number of nuclear warheads declined in the past year.
At the start of 2020, the United States, Russia, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together had 13,400 nuclear arms, according to SIPRI's estimates, 465 fewer than at the start of 2019.
The decline was attributed mainly to the United States and Russia.
While the future of the New START treaty remains uncertain, Washington and Moscow have continued to respect their obligations under the accord.
"In 2019, the forces of both countries remained below the limits specified by the treaty," the report said. But both nations "have extensive and expensive programmes underway to replace and modernise their nuclear warheads, missile and aircraft delivery systems, and nuclear weapon production facilities," it added.
"Both countries have also given new or expanded roles to nuclear weapons in their military plans and doctrines, which marks a significant reversal of the post-Cold War trend towards the gradual marginalisation of nuclear weapons."
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
The number of nuclear arms worldwide has declined since hitting a peak of almost 70,000 in the mid-1980s.
The five original nuclear powers -- Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Paris and London -- in March reiterated their commitment to the treaty.
Russia boasts that it's about to become the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials -- and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire.
Moscow sees a Sputnik-like propaganda victory, recalling the Soviet Union's launch of the world's first satellite in 1957.
But the experimental Covid-19 shots began first-in-human testing on a few dozen people less than two months ago, and there's no published scientific evidence yet backing Russia's late entry to the global vaccine race, much less explaining why it should be considered a front-runner.
“I'm worried that Russia is cutting corners so that the vaccine that will come out may be not just ineffective, but also unsafe,” said Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University. “It doesn't work that way... Trials come first. That's really important.”
According to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the effort, a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in Moscow may be approved in days, before scientists complete what's called a Phase 3 study.
That final-stage study, usually involving tens of thousands of people, is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said members of “risk groups,” such as medical workers, may be offered the vaccine this month.
He didn't clarify whether they would be part of the Phase 3 study that is said to be completed after the vaccine receives “conditional approval.”
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova promised to start “industrial production” in September, and Murashko said mass vaccination may begin as early as October.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist, questioned the fast-track approach last week.
“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone, because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing I think is problematic at best," he said.
Questions about this vaccine candidate come after the US, Britain and Canada last month accused Russia of using hackers to steal vaccine research from Western labs.
Delivering a vaccine first is a matter of national prestige for the Kremlin as it tries to assert the image of Russia as a global power capable of competing with the US and China.
The notion of being “the first in the world” dominated state news coverage of the effort, with government officials praising reports of the first-step testing.
In April, President Vladimir Putin ordered state officials to shorten the time of clinical trials for a variety of drugs, including potential coronavirus vaccines.
According to Russia's Association of Clinical Trials Organizations, the order set “an unattainable bar” for scientists who, as a result, "joined in on the mad race, hoping to please those at power.”
The association first raised concern in late May, when professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya institute, said he and other researchers tried the vaccine on themselves.
The move was a “crude violation of the very foundations of clinical research, Russian law and universally accepted international regulations" the group said in an open letter to the government, urging scientists and health officials to adhere to clinical research standards.
But a month later, the Health Ministry authorized clinical trials of the Gamaleya product, with what appeared to be another ethical issue.
Human studies started June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder.
Some in the first half were recruited from the military, which raised concerns that servicemen may have been pressured to participate.
Some experts said their desire to perform well would affect the findings. “It's no coincidence media reports we see about the trials among the military said no one had any side effects, while the (other group) reported some," said Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert with Moscow's Higher School of Economics.
As the trials were declared completed and looming regulatory approval was announced last week, questions arose about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.
Government assurances the drug produced the desired immune response and caused no significant side effects were hardly convincing without published scientific data describing the findings.
The World Health Organization said all vaccine candidates should go through full stages of testing before being rolled out.
“There are established practices and there are guidelines out,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Tuesday.
“Between finding or having a clue of maybe having a vaccine that works, and having gone through all the stages, is a big difference.”
Offering an unsafe compound to medical workers on the front lines of the outbreak could make things worse, Georgetown's Gostin said, adding: “What if the vaccine started killing them or making them very ill?”
Vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways — from a negative impact on health to creating a false sense of security or undermining trust in vaccinations, said Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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